Screen device.



No. 806,416. I PATENTED DEG.5,1905.

' M. E. LAYNB.

SCREEN DEVICE.

' APPLICATION FILED JAN. 8, 1903.

WITNESSES: I mvzn'ron,

. No. seems.

MAHLON E. LAYNE, oFQ ocK RAPIDS, IOWA. S'OREEN" Dav es.

Specification of Letters Patent.

7 Patented Dec. 5, 1905.-

Application filed January i3, 1903. ,Serial No. 138,217.

To ail whom it may concern:

- Be it known that I, MAHLON E. LAYNn,a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Rock Rapids, Lyon county, Iowa, have invented certain'new and useful Improvements in Screen Devices, of which the following, taken in connection with the'accompanying drawings, is. a specification.- I

This invention has reference to mechanism such as isemployed in, wells, to permit "the water to flowinto the well at the bottom of the pipe, and at the same time protect the'interior of the pipe from the entrance of sand or dirt from the outside, and the principal object of this invention is the provision of a device of the character specified, which will permit ready access of the water to the interior of the screen, while at the same time keeping out the foreign substances, and moths liable to be choked up by the same wedging into the opening.

' A further object of this invention is the pro-.

I vision of an apparatus of the kind specified,

which is so constructed that it can be made at a very low cost, and will not be liable to get out of order.

- Still another object of this invention is the provision of a screen device of the kind specified above, in combination with an apertured supporting frame, a plurality of strips secured across the aperture of the said frame, and spaced apart from each other so as to permit the water to pass between them, said strips having the face next the frame narrower than their outer face, whereby. the openings formed between adjacent strips are narrowest on the outside and gradually increase in width vwhere it has been proposed to use screen devices in-which the openings were smaller upon may hereinafter appear, I attain by means of a construction which I have illustrated 1n preferred form in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is an end view of a screen device emr bodying my invention,

Figure 2 is a side elevation thereof,,and Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Figure 1. I Figure i'is an enlarged section of the wire. In carrying out my invention I provide first a supporting frame, which frame in the preferred construction I have shown as constructed of longltudinal bars or strips 4:, fastened about rlngs 5 in some convenient way so as to make a kind of skeleton tube of cylindricalshape, and about such frame I wind a wire 6, which is formed with the outer face narrowed so as to give the wire a kind of truncated pyramid cross-section. In winding the wire around the frame each succeeding coil is spaced apart from thepreceding one as indicated at 9, to make a narrow slit or opening for the entrance of the water, the converging sides of 'the wire thus, disposed as they are, producing a gradual enlargement of the opening toward the interior or toward the frame, so that if any small grains of sand or foreign substance get through the narrow slits they'will wash along with the water and not tend to choke up the openings. The inner side of the wire being fiat, notches in the frame are not required to firmly seat the wire thereon.

In the devices which I have constructed in accordance with my invention I have secured the wire to the frame by means of solder, but they might, if preferred, be retained inposition in any other manner which might be preferred. I

- While in the preferred form of the improvement I have thought it best to use a continushown, it is obvious that a frame made with a number of apertures, or even a frame made with but one aperture, and having said aperin the contemplation of my' invention as 11 claimed in the broader claims.

7 Having thus described my invention, what 'ous'wire wound helically about the frame, as

I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a well screen the combination of an open frame formed of rings and longitudinal bars and having flat external surfaces, a helical Wire Wound thereon resting upon said surfaces and having the turns spaced apart, said Wire being in cross section of the form of a truncated pyramid, whereby the narrow flat surface rests upon said frame and the wide surface of the wire is extended outward so that the openings between the wires are continuous and are of decreasing width toward the outside.

2. In a well screen the combination with a supporting frame, of a screen wire wound thereon and having the turns spaced apart,

said wire being in uniform section of a general quadrilateral form having a flat surface to rest upon said frame and the outer side of the Wire as wound being wider than the inner side, substantially as decribed.

3. The combination with an open supporting frame having a series of longitudinal fiat faced bars, of a screen wound thereon composed of a wire having continuously a cross section of the form of a truncated pyramid and having the turns spaced apart, said wire resting on its narrow face on the frame and having the wide face outward and the slit between successive layers of wire being continuous and unobstructed, substantially as described.

4:. A well screen comprising a supporting frame having a plain surface and a wire Wrapped thereon with openings between the turns of wire, said wire being of greater width on the outer side than on the inner side.

In testimony whereof 1 have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MAHLON E. LAYNE. Witnesses:

.PAUL CARPENTER, EDWARD (J. BURNS. 

